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Alan Wake's American Nightmare |OT| Not a lake, a primordial ocean.

derFeef

Member
I can't believe that the resolution increase is just that marginal. It looks so much better.
Anyway... back to game.
 

Lima

Member
If you collect and listen (it is worth it) to all the manuscript pages I'd say it takes more like 5-6 hours.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Goddamn this game looks good. I think I'm going to turn off the HUD so the minimap isn't telling me everything.
 

FrankT

Member
Insta-bought before I headed out the door this morning. Ready to hit it up to tonight. What is the resolution on this one compared to the first?
 

derFeef

Member
How are folks going through this so fast? I have played an hour and only finished the first area... let's see. Some quick impressions,

Gorgeous! The shift in tone is great.
Ambient music is creeeepy, I love the more electric feel to it.
The Narrator is fantastic. I never saw Twilight Zone but I can appreciate their effort.
Mr. Scratch is my new favourite videogame villain.
Hud to fading is the way to go I think, the perfect balance between no HUD and HUD when you need it.

And yeah it's pretty easy coming back from playing the PC version on Normal (Hard).
 
Just finished a two hour session and I'm enjoying it but there still seems like there is something a bit off about it, I'm just not enjoying it as much as the first game. I think it's the setting, I'm a big fan of the small town pacific northwest aesthetic that the first game had, it's probably my favourite setting in any media. The whole middle of nowhere southern america small dinner setting I just don't find appealing at all. Hopefully they go back to bright falls if they ever make another entry in the series.
 
I only have a couple of hours to spare today... Alan Wake just finished downloading... but I want to watch The Walking Dead. Nooooooooooo! /firstworldproblems
 

derFeef

Member
Made it up to the point where
the story loops and you are at the gas station again
. 3 Hours for me so far and I love it. Will continue (and probably finish it?) tomorrow.
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Anyone else finished yet? It took a while to click here because small stuff like the dialog not focusing on the character's faces or having slight cinematics felt a bit off. Once I got over that I really liked it. The manuscript pages this time give some nice clarity as to how this fits in and while the story probably didn't advance the overal plot that much I still liked it.

Very suspect that there's no mention of Zane anywhere, unless it's in one of the pages I missed
 
Just beat it in two sittings, took me just over 4 hours. I really enjoyed it but not as much as the first game which is easily one of my favourites on the 360. American Nightmare is still great though especially for a XBLA title, I enjoyed the new enemies and weapons and the live action cutscenes were great too.

Not sure if I'll play the Arcade Mode, I plan on gettng rid of my 360 since this was the last game I wanted to play on it, and the Story Mode was a great send off to the console for me
 

watership

Member
Just beat it in two sittings, took me just over 4 hours. I really enjoyed it but not as much as the first game which is easily one of my favourites on the 360. American Nightmare is still great though especially for a XBLA title, I enjoyed the new enemies and weapons and the live action cutscenes were great too.

Not sure if I'll play the Arcade Mode, I plan on gettng rid of my 360 since this was the last game I wanted to play on it, and the Story Mode was a great send off to the console for me

What are you going to do when a true Alan Wake sequel comes out?
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, AW2 is hopefully a 2013 title, and the last great game for 360.

Kinda hoping it's one of the first next-gen games and is one of those launch games that immediately sets the bar. How guaranteed is the sequel at this point? I'm guessing those PC sales must have helped.
 
Man, downloading the SSX demo on PS3 last night was insane fast and right now I'm downloading 'Wake on 360 and it's annoyingly slow. It's like I live in some kind of mirror world to the rest of the Internet lol. Huh, my phone autocapitalizes Internet.

Can't wait to play this, if the god damn thing would finish downloading at some point.
 

demonicmurry

Neo Member
So who else here really loves the manuscript writing in Alan Wake? I know a lot of reviewers grimace at it, but it's really fun to listen to. I really don't think it's terrible compared to your typical paperback or even books like Hunger Games.

Sure, I have read books from more "respected" literary authors. But as far as a New York Times bestseller picks, I think it's on par. And compared with other game writing I still think Remedy is one of the best producers.
 
Kinda hoping it's one of the first next-gen games and is one of those launch games that immediately sets the bar. How guaranteed is the sequel at this point? I'm guessing those PC sales must have helped.

I kind of want it to be a launch game for the next Xbox, but then again, I'm not sure. Most launch games are rushed and doesn't really take advantage of the new hardware.

I wouldn't mind if they used the same assets at 1080p and locked 30 fps with no tearing. It would probably still look better than most other launch games.

Man, downloading the SSX demo on PS3 last night was insane fast and right now I'm downloading 'Wake on 360 and it's annoyingly slow. It's like I live in some kind of mirror world to the rest of the Internet lol. Huh, my phone autocapitalizes Internet.

Can't wait to play this, if the god damn thing would finish downloading at some point.

The Internet is supposed to have a capital I.
 
What are you going to do when a true Alan Wake sequel comes out?

Probably wait for the PC version to be honest, until American Nightmare came out my 360 hadn't been turned on in months and was honestly just wasting space for me. And personally I hope it comes out on the next system and as much as I love the Alan Wake games, the performance is horrible on 360. Even American Nightmare has a bunch of performance issues with a lot of screen tearing, low resolution and some horrible framerate drops at several points.
 
Probably wait for the PC version to be honest, until American Nightmare came out my 360 hadn't been turned on in months and was honestly just wasting space for me. And personally I hope it comes out on the next system and as much as I love the Alan Wake games, the performance is horrible on 360. Even American Nightmare has a bunch of performance issues with a lot of screen tearing, low resolution and some horrible framerate drops at several points.

I certainly don't blame you. I'm more than ready for new hardware, and the only game I play nowadays on my 360 is Gears of War 3.
 

pakkit

Banned
i would recommend against easy and go for at least medium. half the enjoyment of the game is actually being afraid of the taken, and i cant imagine on easy you'd get that same sense of dread with weaker enemies and more ammo. cant imagine it would tack on much time to your playthrough either, as there is only a few spots that you could potentially die and have to retry.
Where's a difficulty selection?
 
I certainly don't blame you. I'm more than ready for new hardware, and the only game I play nowadays on my 360 is Gears of War 3.

Replacing my old laptop with one capable of gaming has really killed my 360 for me, PS3 has enough exclusives to keep me interested for now

But yeah I'm hoping for a 720/PC release for Alan Wake 2, playing the game Day 1 without any tech issues would be an amazing experience I'm sure
 

oatmeal

Banned
Played through the first...chapter?

I miss the episode breaks...unless this still has it and it's just further along.

Looks great, sounds great, plays like AW...though I love that you can run a bit longer. I wish they could put out a patch for AW1 and have it let him run further. That would be awesome.
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Yes, I got that.

But Alan still talked to her like "Oh hey how ya doing, ya it's cool just fighting the darkness. Is your mom well?"

Not really spoilers, but to be safe.

It could just be iffy dialog or the fact that Alan's approach to coping with all this stuff seems to be to roll with everything that's pushed in his face. Or maybe it's because to some big or small extent he "wrote" her and is thus familiar with her in some fashion.

I also missed the clean episode breaks. They were paced really well and the ending song was always very fitting and underlined the atmosphere.
 
This is probably interesting only for people still on the fence, but I wrote a short review for the game on my site. You can find it here.

Excerpt:

timetowaste.net said:
Charm is much of what I like about American Nightmare. Some people expressed discontent at the game's new Arizona setting, stating that the Pacific Northwest locale was what made Alan Wake special. Personally, I quite like this direction, since the new setting ensures a fresh look that sits well with the style Remedy's going for. The game's menu screen actually deserves special mention in that respect. Upon start-up, you're faced with an infinite Arizona highway under a brooding sky and it's instantly evocative of all the grimy desert-set movies you've ever cared to remember. I love it. The game itself looks equally splendid, with a color palette consisting of striking shades of purple and red. Of course, the game cuts some corners here and there, most notably in the interior of one of the game's buildings (an observatory), but on the whole it looks impressive. The game's perpetual sense of twilight (combined with all the pop culture references) creates a mood that rivals even the atmosphere of the first game.
 

aDDiKt24

Banned
That menu screen with the road and clouds is mesmerizing. Probably one of the best menu screens I have seen in a long time. Love the timelapse.
 
Didn't someone post about alien sightings and something about a cave? Using spoiler just in case I missed them



So is each new location a "chapter"?

I wrapped up the Rest Stop pretty quickly so its got me worried its going to be really short.


You'll be revisiting
 
Bought!

Only played about 30 minutes before my dad called me back to work for a bit. Great stuff so far though. Game looks beautiful, sound design is really good so far, game still has a creepy vibe, it's different but good. Like Mr Scratch a lot. Also, Alan being pretty wry about dealing with Taken again is great. Reminds me a bit of Isaac in Dead Space 2.

Great loading screen too, I agree with that.
 
I bought this in the morning but due to my extremely busy schedule I wont be able to play till Friday evening at the earliest. At least I have something to look forward to.
 
I'm about 90 min, calling it quits for tonight. Man, it feels so good to be playing AW again, I love it! New guns feel great. Ammo and batteries are a little too readily available, though.
 
Just a little bit into the game, but man am I enjoying it for all of the little things it does right in polish. I know it won't be as good as the first one, but it still is a great game.
 
I'm digging the game but Xbox Live wont let me buy it, anyone else having that problem? Trying to unlock it in game and it takes a while and then errors out on me. I don't want to lose all my progress if I finish the demo.

Edit: we'll that sucks, finished the demo, still couldn't buy it. Guess I'll have to replay that whole part again, bummer
 

Grisby

Member
Played about 2 hrs with some arcade time included. I love it. There's nothing quite like AW in terms of atmosphere and what it presents.

Early spoiler:
I loved the first TV you come across with Mr. Scratch on it. Such a delightful character who is very well acted. Oh, and the satellite sequence? Short but got my fist pumping, great.

Also, a quick question, do I get to go back to the first area at any point? I think I moved on without meaning too.
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
I'm digging the game but Xbox Live wont let me buy it, anyone else having that problem? Trying to unlock it in game and it takes a while and then errors out on me. I don't want to lose all my progress if I finish the demo.

Edit: we'll that sucks, finished the demo, still couldn't buy it. Guess I'll have to replay that whole part again, bummer

Hapenning the same to me. I waited all day for it to be the right time (night), but now I can't buy the game. Fuuuuuuuuuuck.
 

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
Didn't someone post about alien sightings and something about a cave? Using spoiler just in case I missed them






You'll be revisiting

Good, because I was like where are all these manuscripts I'm still missing.

Tried the Arcade mode and was able to survive till dawn on the first attempt. Pretty fun.
 

M.W.

Member
Hmm, I DL'ed the trial, then went to unlock the game and it keeps giving me an error code. I've been trying for a half hour. WTF.
 

jtrov

Member
Man... this game. Just blown away by the presentation, look, and feel of American Nightmare. The game just looks soo good and the sound is just so damn atmospheric. Just loving what Remedy has done with this Alan Wake XBLA game, as it's everything I was hoping for, once it was announced.

I was a huge fan of the combat in the first Alan Wake and during the GB Quick Look, where they kept saying, "Who was asking for this?"... I couldn't help, but nod my head, "yes"... over and over. I love the tense feeling of the combat and being surrounded by the Taken, and in the Arcade Mode you get a full dosage. I only got chance to try the Cemetery, but wow, trying to find supplies as the round comes to a close, while being rapidly chased by the Taken is such an amazing rush.

Definitely having a great time with this game. I'm really enjoying the story so far and I can already see myself losing many of hours besting my score in Arcade Mode. Now enough posting and back to more American Nightmare.
 

bubnbob

Banned
Story was ok. Felt like another DLC chapter, and I would still prefer those.

This lost a lot of the "mystery" - even moreso since we are to assume this is just some random story.

Missed 3 pages, then will try out Arcade mode.
 

Robot Pants

Member
Voice acting is pretty awful aside from Wake.
Especially Dr. Meadows. Yikes.
My only complaint. Also the difficulty isn't very hard, but it's only my first playthrough, hopefully there is a nightmare difficulty.
Still rather have had Remedy skip this and just make AW2.
 
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